


Bookmarked

by Amrynth



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: AU August, Alternate Universe - Library, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25723234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth
Summary: Caleb is fascinated with whoever have been checking out all the books ahead of him.  Trouble is, will the actual E. Thelyss live up to the image he has in his head?
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	Bookmarked

**Author's Note:**

> Does Essek have a library card? Because Caleb's been checking him out!!
> 
> I ended up skipping day 3 of AU August but here's day 4: Library. I'm not sure what sort of AU that is and it's my list so. Mystery! This was fun though, hope you enjoy!

Afternoons in the library were always his favorite part of the day. It was when the light would start to filter through the high windows and coat everything in a gold patina. Caleb looked up as the light moved across the library, slowly washing everything in gold and yellow. 

“The fuck are you reading?” Beauregard asked, grabbing the book from his hands and flipping it to look at the cover. 

Okay. Usually this was Caleb’s favorite part of the day. When his idiot friends hadn’t shown up to interrupt what should have been a quiet time alone. He looked up at Beau where she was making a stink face at the book in her hands like it had offended her personally somehow. Beside her Fjord and Nott were being a little respectable, he had a book on sailing and she had an alchemy book. Meanwhile Jester had a coloring book and her entire box of crayons spread across the table. 

“It is just a book Beauregard. Please may I have it back?” Caleb leaned to reach for the book in her hands to attempt to retrieve it. 

“No but why are you reading… ‘A Treatise on Dunamancy and Bending Dunamis’?” Beau pulled it from his reach, just outside of where his fingers could reach without practically climbing onto the table. She looked at him over the cover, frowning. 

“It- it is nothing,” he insisted. Caleb could feel his face warming and color rising into his face. 

“Oh. My. Gosh. Is this a boy thing, Caleb?” Jester finally joined the conversation in the middle of the library. Jester did not possess an indoor voice, let alone a library voice. “Caleb, do you like someone?”

“Oh gods.” Caleb just put his head down on the desk and tried to convince himself it was worth having friends. “There is not a boy. There is no one. Please may I have my book back?”

“There’s not a boy,” Nott piped in, appearing from behind her book. “We don’t actually know who it is, do we Caleb?”

“So there is someone.” Beau slipped into full interrogation mode. 

“They check out the books before Caleb, look.” 

Caleb knew Nott meant well and was trying to get the questions to stop but he could have kicked all of them out of the library right then. Beauregard flipped the front cover of the book in her hands open and pulled the card from the pocket. 

“Let’s see. There’s a lot of names here. Is it A. Vysoren?” she asked. One glance at Caleb seemed to confirm that no, it wasn’t. “No. Let’s see. Well the person to check it out before you did was E. Thelyss.”

Despite telling himself he wasn’t going to react, Caleb picked his head up off the desk to look miserably at Beau. “Can you please just drop it?” 

He could see the war on her face as her natural instincts to keep asking questions battled with the absolute misery in Caleb’s voice. “Alright. But tomorrow I’m not going to let you off so easily.”

“May I please have my book back?” Caleb asked. 

Beauregard returned the book and disappeared into the stacks. Finally Caleb had a moment’s peace to continue working rapidly through the remainder of the book in his hands. He only had a few minutes respite from being teased before Beauregard appeared next to him. 

“Dude. Dude. Dude, there’s a- the the guy. Your guy. He’s at the counter. E. Thelyss, Caleb,” Beauregard dropped down to speak as quietly next to him. Fortunately for Caleb, Beau did have an indoor voice. 

“I-” Caleb froze, then got to his feet with the dunamancy book clutched in his hands. 

“Go, dude. Go see if he’s as cute as you’ve been dreaming he might be,” Beau pulled his seat away to make sure he couldn’t sit back down. 

Caleb slunk across the library toward the front desk. He bent slightly to peer between shelves but couldn’t see anything by a dark cloak. With a deep breath, he moved to the side of the shelves he was hiding behind, just as the dark-cloaked figure at the desk turned. 

He was utterly handsome, pale hair pushed back from a dark, purple elven face. E. Thelyss stole the breath from Caleb’s chest just in the moment he stood beside the counter, pale eyes on the golden windows as the last few minutes of gold started to fade back to ordinary light. Caleb could feel his face warming again and he lifted the dunamancy book in his hands to hide the lower half. The last of the golden light dissipated and E. Thelyss turned to walk out of the library with three books in his arms.

“Well?” Beau materialized again, grinning as she peered at him. 

He didn’t answer, frozen in place and still staring where E. Thelyss had disappeared. 

“That good, huh?”

“Ja.”


End file.
